“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” the verse in question reads.

Prison officials also noted that the troubled player’s Bible was lying near his body and opened to the same verse.

Sources told the paper that an investigation had been launched to find out if Hernandez had somehow gotten hold of a synthetic marijuana called K2 on Tuesday night.

Even as Hernandez’s death was labeled a suicide, some of the ex-NFL player’s family and friends insisted that he would never have done such a thing to himself.

On Wednesday, his former lawyer, a sports agent, at least one of his former teammates, and his family all expressed doubts over the claim that Hernandez committed suicide. Some even speculated that he may have been murdered.

Despite being acquitted in his most recent murder case, Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of Odin Lloyd.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.